A CHARITY which delivers essential social care services across Argyll and Bute, including the telecare responder service, called on local councillors and the Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) this week to reconsider devastating cuts to its health and social care budget.
Carr Gomm has delivered services in Argyll and Bute since 2010 and operates in Rothesay as well as other areas across the local region. Their telecare responder service prevents people from being unnecessarily admitted to hospital and reduces the pressure on emergency services and hospitals, as well as GP services.
The responder service in Bute alone answered 6,411 alarm call-outs (unplanned), with 5,389 planned support visits.
Carr Gomm also recently raised concerns with the HSCP and asked them to assess the impact the proposed changes will have on people and communities across Argyll and Bute, who will experience greater pressure on their services as a result.
Carr Gomm’s concerns came after the HSCP published a savings option to further reduce the responder service across the region, as one of a number of measures to close its budget gap.
At the end of last year, representatives of Bute Island Response (BIR), during a meeting with councillors, expressed their fears over proposed cuts to their service, come the council’s budgetary decisions in February. At the time of the meeting, Ian Mitchell of BIR said: “Our service could be finished, and we feel the service we provide is extremely valuable, in fact essential, to people in our community. Responders also often support people who are on palliative or end-of-life care. What service will provide this?”
Councillor Ross Moreland (Liberal Democrat, Dunoon), who is on the HSCP’s Integration Joint Board, was at that meeting and added that things will be worked through before any final decision is made.
This week, Carr Gomm maintained their position and called on local councillors and other decision-makers to reconsider cutting essential social care services, as they feel the proposal will threaten an already stretched health and social care system and will remove people’s right to live safely and well in their own homes.
Chief Executive Andrew Thomson said: “We feel that there has been insufficient attention paid to the positive impact of our services in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable and frail people in our society. Nor has there been wider scrutiny of the impact of removing the services on people, families, communities, and the wider health and social care system. Is ending critical services really the correct choice to make?”
Argyll and Bute Council are due to meet next month to set their annual budget, which will determine if the HSCP’s proposed cuts will become a reality.
